World Junior Championship in Russia from Dec. 26th, Team Canada prepares for the challenge-NHL News
The Team Canada is set to face the Team USA in the Under-20 World Junior Championship to be held in Russia from December 26, 2012 to January 05, 2013, according to the event schedule announced by the host committee of 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation,
on Thursday, April 05, 2012.
Both teams are in group B of the tournament, which also features the hosts, Russia, Slovakia and Germany.
Group A includes the defending champions, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Latvia.
Sweden had won the gold medal by beating Russia with 1-0 goal margin. The win had come after the drought of 30 years.
The event is going to be held at 7,950-seat Ufa Arena in Russia. The event is very popular in the country and features many known players from the NHL as well.
It also presents itself as a platform to the ambitious ice hockey players to prove their toughness and game skills, which adds to their overall game profile and rankings.
A number of Russian players, who represent different clubs in the American-Canadian ice hockey league, National Hockey League, are expected get a call from the national team.
The Team Canada is most successful side in the championship with win of the gold medals for 15 times. This includes 10 consecutive wins. They lost on the spree with a defeat against Russian in the semi-final game in January 2012.
Russia is the second highest winner of the gold medals in the championship. They have the tally of 13 gold medals.
Meanwhile, the Team USA’s performance was disappointing in last year’s championship as they were pushed down to finish at the seventh position.
USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey operations, Jim Johannson, said of the team:
"I think as we look back on this tournament, it comes down to the fact the performance wasn't what all of us expected. Do we have to look at some of the makeup of the team? Certainly. But it comes down to performance on the ice and we didn't get that performance."
This had remained the poorest performance by the US team after they had finished at 8th position in 1999 championship.
Johannson now hopes to come out with a significant improvement in the form and display better game skills. He refrained from speculating a position he could expect from the team to finish at least if are not able to compete for the gold medal.
A large number of players from different clubs in the NHL have made it to the championship and are gold medallists. Few of them are going to join the squad this year as well.
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